Our rental experience (lease, evicted, house, legal)

[okaydorothy]

Hi there
Well, almost three years ago we tried to sell our house, had no takers so we ended up renting it instead. We signed up with a well known broker to show the house and amazing enough he had a lawyer friend who was looking for a house for his daughter and her three children. The lawyer cosigned the lease as did the daughter.

Three years later, she was evicted on weds. Not because she wasnt paying her rent ; she was always on time. But because she was trashing the house and we couldnt get a rental permit renewed because of it.

She left us with ; four broken windows, cats urine all over the place, fleas, a broken door, a broken bilco door (came off the cement), holes in the walls, a three year old stove that will see the dump, the tiles on the kitchen floor were beaten with some sort of tool. A basement full of mold ; I left TWO dehumidifiers for to use ; now the basement will need to be totally gutted.

The court papers said she would leave it in good condition. Gosh I would hate to see bad condition.

Guess I will be seeing her and her dad in small claims court and hopefully will collect as much as I can.

And the funny thing is that they think it was in better condition now than when we leased it to her. Yeah right ; like they would have taken a house with glass sticking out of the windows.

Any advice here.
dorothy

[Gretchen B]

Unless somebody's got "before" and "after" pictures, it's probably their word against your word. Did you have them do any kind of a check sheet at the beginning stating any items that needed repair or accepting that the home was in good condition and no repair items were noted?

I would definitely take some photos at this point, so you can at least prove the condition it's in now.

I personally don't deal in property management, but maybe somebody familiar with the general rental laws and especially the laws in your state would be helpful. Let's hope you get some useful advice. Sorry that you've got a trashed home now.

[christina0001]

I would hire a good lawyer. You're going up against someone who has unlimited and free legal counsel.

[okaydorothy]

We did take photos of all the damage. We also got a cop to come over and make a report which he did. The security wont even go near the damage.
We do have some before photos.

Also there is no way she can say that the windows were broken when she moved in ; who would take a house with jagged glass showing??

dorothy